Police continue to investigate a brash and unusual weekend robbery at a popular Ayr restaurant.
Early Sunday morning, thieves used a fire hose and a pickup truck to pull an ATM out of Papa Joe’s. They got away with an ATM full of cash while leaving behind significant damage to the front entrance of the restaurant.
Security camera footage shows that a man with his head and face covered broke into the restaurant, wrapped the fire hose around the ATM and used the pickup truck to pull it out of the building.
Despite the damage, the restaurant – a popular stop for families, travelers and truckers – was open for business Monday morning.
“We never had to shut down,” owner Charoula Pataslis told CTV.
“We’re gonna fix the place and keep going.”
That fixing and keeping going won’t include a replacement for the ATM. Pataslis says she’s heard of enough similar incidents that she now thinks an ATM is more trouble than it’s worth.
“I don’t want to go through this again,” she said.
Meanwhile, police say they’re looking to see if the elaborate heist might match up with an unsolved case in another jurisdiction.
“Our crime analyst … is also working on anything similar up and down the 401 corridor, liaising with other police services,” said Sgt. Al Green.
While the restaurant was closed at the time, a nearby gas station was open. But workers say they didn’t see or suspect anything until they heard the machine get pulled through the window.
“[We] had a couple of cashiers and a manager on duty, and basically until the moment it happened they had no indications of anything at all,” said gas station general manager Patrick Bennett.
By the time anyone from the gas station could investigate, the truck was out of sight.
Police say one of the suspects is about 5’11” while the other is less than five feet tall. Both are men who were wearing dark clothing.
